the AI Willy Wonka Experience disaster

[@svenleeuwen]

I really feel for the actors, from what I have seen they did their best to at least entertain the kids.

[@gFamWeb]

I mean, one of (one of the Wonka actors) allegedly groomed one of his students. She came forward on TikTok.

[@estherstreet4582]

They seem like such sweet people, I really hope they get paid properly and manage to spin this into a good start to a career.

[@grbenway]

I think they just got cheated as much as the kids did, and they really seemed as though they did whatever they could

[@mrbork7218]

Well, except for the one who is allegedly a groomer.

[@joyanna9433]

they will be just fine. they're making bank from this exposure.

[@cosysleepsounds]

calling the business ‘House of Illuminati’ was really a choice

[@nailinthefashion]

They should have gone with “house of shady business” … has a bit more of a ring to it

[@hebedite4865]

Undoubtedly AI generated as well

[@G-Cole-01]

one of the of all time

[@ashmeadowphoenix]

apparently the owner sells books that rip off dan brown novels....so it was probably deliberate lmao

[@GilTheDragon]

It is giving Ballpit Extra Hours

[@UhOphelia]

My buddy is from Scotland and was confused as to how we were understanding their The Unknown jokes, they thought that it was just a local scuffle and not a international garbage fire sensation

[@Redsonja77]

lmaoo 🤣 "International Garbage Fire Sensation" will be the name of my band 😌

[@estheromoyele3321]

@ville__thank you 🥹

[@UhOphelia]

@ville__ what the fuck are you on about

[@elsa_g]

@@UhOphelia don’t feed the bot

[@ellenkarlsson9490]

@@UhOphelia He's a professional troll, don't engage.

[@aksez2u]

So.. AI art, AI script, AI organization? It's almost like a sick joke of a way to prove how pathetic AI is at most things.

[@shewithwings]

the actors contracts were also ai i heard 😭

[@MrStickman1997]

And an AI generated character to boot.

[@ambientexperience5793]

The Apology was also written by AI 😂

[@aksez2u]

@@ambientexperience5793 I guess the organizers are ready to give their entire brains over to AI already!

[@TheSpartan9670]

The dude behind this has been accused of a lot of bad stuff in glasgow. Like starting a food bank and charity during the pandemic then allegedly closing and pocketing the cash.

[@danieltobin4498]

That definitely checks out.

[@leostrate4768]

​@@danieltobin4498naw his checks bounce 😂

[@ninjaeddy1717]

@ville__ no thanks. I’d rather die.

[@ally939]

Holy shit, that’s cartoonishly evil

[@DocAcher]

Yeeep. Sounds exactly on brand

[@KrisC849]

I will never be able to get “what is that? It’s the unknown” out of my head lol

[@unicornpisssss]

_nooooooo_

[@DrawciaGleam02]

I was wondering when comments about that would show up!!

[@KairiMorin]

It's amazing how mind-blowing in the worst possible way. It's been stuck in my head for days.

[@KrisC849]

@ville__ homophobe get out of my replies

[@nacereddinechallal4405]

No go away ​@ville__

[@hioute]

i feel soooo bad for the girl playing the oompa loompa in that iconic photo, she's said she's upset that it's so popular but i just... i'm so sorry girlie. it's the best photo i've ever seen in my life. it makes me laugh hysterically every time. i really hope she is able to move on from this and she deserves the best, but i cannot remove the photo from my list of "funniest images literally ever of all time"

[@alanfike]

She deserves to run her own event. No doubt she's got the sympathy at this point, and she would have known better now to run one on these than these producers. It could be called "The Can't Do Much Worse Than Willy McDuff Circus", or whatever she wants it to be. I think if it looked fun enough and she gave her genuine approval, it would work.

[@thetruebadevil]

I get why that one trended because “haha miserable people funny” but I hope the other, happier pictures of her go just as viral or the virality of this one calms down a bit.

[@vaiyt]

Some people who had great careers had hilarious starts. Just look up Kane's early wrestling gigs. 😂

[@CDRachelsauthorofMMroman-ee4ci]

the meth lab oompa loompa will always be in my head

[@unpaidpiper]

Her and the other oompa loompa have been offered a few "celebrity bartender" gigs around Glasgow after this thing blew up. They'll be appearing in character at the local Horrorcon and handing out jellybeans

[@estherstreet4582]

These "parents disappointed about immersive experience that turns out to be a sad warehouse" stories are fairly common honestly, it's basically a christmas tradition in the UK to have at least one of them end up in the news. I didn't realise this was such a meme-worthy disaster until everyone on the internet was talking about it, the AI garbage and general disorganisation puts it on a whole other level.

[@lylukk]

i just don't understand these people that pay out money for events like this that they know nothing about. like I do research before I buy anything

[@delightfulmochas]

I think the way it appropriated a well-known IP (especially one with a very recent release) also really helped launch it into the public consciousness

[@Fyrsiel]

If it hasn't already, I suspect AI-generated anything will eventually become synonymous with "cheap".

[@NoxDolore]

Good.

[@Yakita60]

Bingo

[@HNBGamer]

Obviously. AI generated images aren't "democratizing art" like what AI bros says, it's more like mass production of "art".

[@amoliski]

In the words of Danny Gonzales: "Police were called? That's wild, the police weren't called in the /ACTUAL/ Willy Wonka factory, and kids were dying."

[@ioanaadrg]

Is this the reason for which Swell took his exact thumbnail? I wonder....

[@helixier6629]

Don't we all want a pasadise of sweet teats in our life?

[@Bjorksbackyard]

I’m more of a cartchy tuns girl tbh

[@xscottishsoulx320]

Also, the event manager has AI written books online for sale, he is OBSESSED with AI

[@maninanikittycat4238]

I believe that AI bros are delusional

[@mrbork7218]

Half of them are conspiracy books. With all the xenophobia expected of the genre.

[@vaiyt]

AI books that look like they were trained on specific authors/series, so they're bootlegs as well

[@Bjorksbackyard]

What if AI has grown sentient and is tired of him, so it created this monstrosity to ruin his life

[@ajayjay5725]

Man has a hobby, I guess. Looking at the stuff AI generates for entertainment.

[@retroshitposts9807]

The pics of done-up banquet halls are real and actually come from another, seemingly unrelated company called Eventologists. Whoever runs houseofilluminati literally just stole those pictures from another actually legit event planning company and didn't even bother changing the file name.

[@MxchiefMaykr]

Basically any image he's used for anything has either been AI or stolen off other people wholesale, there were several other things he was caught stealing and claiming were made specially for the event

[@vaiyt]

AI is already stealing, and you don't have any vision of your own, might as well keep stealing.

[@tom_j.]

Nicki Minaj as an artist of her status using AI art for single covers is insane

[@yoyohayli]

Well, she also just seems like a nasty person in general. Very vindictive, quick to lash out at anyone, defensive of predators, and ableist.

[@tom_j.]

@@yoyohayli her one sided beef with Megan was insane, she needs serious help

[@Cyancat123]

It was pretty predictable actually, Nicki Minaj is a renowned piece of shit.

[@meredithweston46399]

Right? Imagine having such a huge platform, and the funds, to uplift fellow creatives (huge opportunity to amplify voices in your community, whether that's poc or other minorities) by paying them for their work, but turning to cheap plagiarism tech instead. And in Nicki's case, she openly speaks out against AI models using her voice, but it's ok when she rips off visual artists? Ok...

[@JeskidoYT]

​@@tom_j.Good thing megan is good and is part of Crunchyroll now

[@DrFranklynAnderson]

Can concur about good actors. Colonial Williamsburg isn’t very wheelchair accessible for a little kid, but when I went the actress who played a maid did such an amazing job staying in-character as she showed me the photo album of the upstairs rooms. Helped redeem what could have been a very boring time.

[@SenshiSunPower]

I'm sorry to hear that! I thought the ADA had rules for wheelchair accessibility. In a historical society near me, they use raised walkways to add ramps.

[@kathrynredmond5294]

​@SenshiSunPower ADA, in practice, only applies to new buildings and renovations. Buildings built before the implementation of ADA are grandfathered and exempt unless renovations or modifications are made. However, if you can prove that bringing the building up to code would cause undo financial burden you can also become exempt.

[@sternshadowdude2]

@@SenshiSunPower Yeah, why didn't people hundreds of years ago make their buildings ADA compliant? How dare they?

[@SoaringLettuce]

Twitter artists taking The Unknown and making them this amazing character is my favorite part of this.

[@theundyingcat]

i love the unknown

[@NankitaBR]

8:10 the reason why they dropped the script was because it was AI garbage and they didn't get the props that the script asked for for the actors to use. They didn't even have enough candy to give the children, the children got from 1 ti 3 jellybeans and half a cup of lemonade. People were complaining, so they told the actors to improvise and get the people through the event as fast as possible.

[@sophiagonzales8974]

For the props they could've just diy the materials for the props hell even when I make interactive immersions we just diy the black cloth that they have could've been used to hang wall decor

[@eastdakota6954]

ah you missed an important key part: it was Tesco brand lemonade! they couldn't even make their own lemonade

[@eastdakota6954]

@ville__ WHO CARES+ I CAN BEAT YOU IN A FIGHT BTW

[@ASmidgeOfPidge]

Chuck Tingle has made a very similar argument about AI art -- basically, that if you use it instead of making something yourself/hiring someone, your "brand" instantly becomes cheap, low-quality cash grab material. I think it means even more coming from him because if you've seen his book covers once, you know exactly what his style is, even though they're not exactly "high art".

[@oofbih6397]

16:32 thats not even ai art!! They didn’t print anything themselves that is a tapestry of a Candy land landscape you can find at party stores 💀

[@LotusDecember]

I hate the "it makes art more accessible" excuse for AI "art". It steals from actual artists is what it does. The only thing "inaccessible" about art is time. Those people just can't stand that they have to put time and effort into a hobby. Or that they have to pay artists if they want custom art.

[@Meimoons]

Let’s be real here, ai bros never valued artists in the first place.

[@maninanikittycat4238]

I hate that cope excuse so much. What's stopping them from buying some paper and some pencils

[@thetruebadevil]

God I hate when they claim people against AI art are ableist because AI art makes art “accessible”. And it’s like… no. I promise you there’s other methods of making art that doesn’t contribute to both pollution and exploitation of artists on the internet. Disabled artists are having their work used without consent in AI shit and a lot of them use things like commissions to make money. I wouldn’t mind AI art if everything it learned from was used with consent and you had to tell people it was made with AI. Also if how much it’s contributed to global warming (for the same reasons as cryptocurrency has) was brought down by a shit ton.

[@AtticKnight]

Does Google Translate steal from human translators?

[@meow.4972]

Why are we making art more accessible tho???? As a visual artist I constantly tell ppl who wanna commission me that art is a luxury, not a necessity, and to worry about bills first . AI art as a short cut is worse than little/no art at all imo. Very shady.

[@Shadeadder]

It is actually not a Willy Wonka event. The event is called "Willy's Chocolate Experience" or whatever and the character's name is Willy McDuff to avoid copyright issues.

[@walkerbomb]

Regardless of licensing, the fact that they did not have cloth walls or lighting or ANYTHING in place shows that they just kept going because of the sunk cost. They knew it would be a failure but didn’t want to call it.

[@gaerekxenos]

They held the event because it was more or less meant to be a scam in the first place, with the purpose of the event being held to say "we actually ran the event" in order to decrease the possible penalties against them. If they ran off with the money, they'd have law enforcement hunting them down 100%. If they refunded and canceled, then no money was earned. Holding the event meant that they could potentially decline refunds, and potentially have an argument of "we delivered the product" even if said product was not up to expectation for lawsuits against them It is a bit of a sunken cost thing, since canceling and refunding everyone was still an option. I really don't think this gamble is going to pay off, based on what I've been hearing

[@jbutler8585]

Amanda's right, tablecloths or even sheets of colored tissue paper would be a sign that they intended to decorate. No way this was an IP conflict.

[@av2279]

I have been a part of things like this, working in entertainment. I'm not saying this is what happened here, but in my experience, usually it's things one by one not going right or getting done (especially within the budget), and the people in charge just keep saying "Okay, we'll figure it out. We'll ask actors to bring their own makeup and wardrobe. We'll just have snacks instead of catering." Etc. Sometimes the event plans start out reasonable, but then other people start getting involved and asking/suggesting for things to be added, and the answer from the people in charge is always "Yes! We can do that!", and it gets added to the list, with no additional budget. Before you know it, it's a week out from the event and nothing has been secured, and the people in charge finally acknowledge that there's a huge issue, but they REFUSE to cancel anything, or stop selling tickets. They REFUSE to postpone, to give discounts, to send out announcements that things that have been promised won't be delivered on, anything. Sometimes they come to their senses the day before the event and cancel it when there's 0 time left to reasonably let people know to cancel their plans and refund their money. But other times these idiots just order the team to put on the event and it's a complete trainwreck, and later they of course take no accountability and can't seem to understand why their overworked team couldn't put together an overdone event on a next-to-nothing budget. That's the part I just can't get over. They literally cannot comprehend beforehand that the event will be a dumpster fire, and people will be upset and ask for refunds, at the very least, and we will end up losing money. They are able to convince themselves despite all circumstances that they will save the day, even though they barely know what's going on. Sorry, just had to rant about it.

[@AnimalLover101195]

The fact that my first thought when I saw the title was “of course swell went to that.” Shows her mythical event attended status 😂😂😂 unfortunate she couldn’t actually go.

[@alanfike]

Somehow the 9 month cruise swung by Scotland and she hopped off to catch this!

[@addendumBeekeeper]

as someone who lives in a building that shared space with the Van Gogh thing, it was incredibly detrimental to our living space. It’s an apartment building full of college students, people have had overdoses and been raided, and yet because of the Van Gogh exhibit, parents were just letting their kids run free at as late as 11pm. It also turned the apartments from feelings safe and gated to open to the public. My friend literally had his catalytic converter stolen and they couldn’t do anything because “he was parked in the Van Gogh lot” When they shut down they sold all their stuff at a 90% discount, so if you see a college student in Denver with Van Gogh merch, that’s most likely why. All of us hold an incredible disdain for the place and celebrated when it went out of business.

[@alankelly1001]

There was never a license. All the advertising was very careful to never use the name "Wonka" anywhere. Even the scripts said "Willy McDuff" instead of Wonka (yes, some other channels managed to get hold of the script while interviewing the actors directly... it's really obvious AI generated garbage, where the dialog is pretty much just a stream of lengthy adjectives expounding the "wonder", and (strangely) scripted audience stuff, which might work in a film script where the "audience" for Mr. McDuff are also actors playing parts but has no place at all in an "interactive experience" script). It's all the work of ONE GUY, who apparently has a history of trying to mislead people by passing off AI garbage as actual creative work. His last attempt seems to have been a set of e-books about "secrets of the rich", again completely AI written (badly).

[@panickyandy8291]

I was visiting Glasgow the day this event was happening, and it KILLS ME that I wasn't aware this was happening in the moment

[@swiftlyjer-pdf]

I saw the oompa loompa girl is doing cameos and honestly i respect it

[@CDRachelsauthorofMMroman-ee4ci]

honestly ? good for her let her make that paper for being part of that garbage event and also the most iconic photo of 2024

[@JohnPruden]

The trademark issue was avoided by them making the character “Willy McDuff” and saying that it was in no way related to Willy Wonka. Not sure what the legal implications would be if Warner did try a trademark suit.

[@Woynich]

and the script wasnt thrown out for trademark issues, it was thrown out because it was a bunch of nonsensical gibberish asking the audience to admire props and gadgets that didn't exist, called for Willy McDuff to perform real magic, and included stage directions and lines for the audience members.

[@sarasthoughts]

​@@Woynich holy shit

[@prettyvxcant]

​@@Woynich including incredible characters such as the "anti-grafitti gobstopper"!

[@Romanticoutlaw]

truly a missed opportunity to make his surname macbeth

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

The kids crying in unison still gets me

[@GamesFromSpace]

The thing about AI generated content is that at first glance it looks like somebody put a ton of effort into it. If you know to look closer, you realize all the apparent work went into details which don't matter at all. If you don't know to look closer, it could mislead you into thinking a zero-assed project should have higher expectations than it deserves. Even if it's your own project.

[@oscarcacnio8418]

"You realize all the apparent work went into details which don't matter at all." ... Am I a Machine-Based Neural Network? :v

[@NoelleTakestheSky]

ACTUALLY, a lot of real artists obsess over those tiny details. You only think they don’t matter because of ignorance. Look at the work of a lot of the renaissance masters. They’d go in with brushes as fine as a single hair. You may not be aware of off those seemingly trivial details, but they’re what elevate something from a fingerpainting to a piece that people will study and marvel at for centuries due to the intricacies of the small details. When you see people in art museum…which I’m sure you’ve never been to…getting close to paintings and looking hard at small random spots, they’re studying those tiny details that you only notice with a close, focused look. So using “you realize all the apparent work went into details which don't matter at all” as the way to determine AI from non-AI is as stupid as “if it has a glow filter of bokeh effect, it’s AI” when photographers buy expensive lenses to try to obtain those effects, and many digital artists like those effects. Your statement is the kind of statement leading to witch hunts right now, and it’s putting a lot of book cover artists out of business since too many of them are getting accused of using AI, even for covers finished before AI was consumer-level, and a simple accusation from ignorant people who want to be praised for “caring” about “real” artists is enough to destroy a career.

[@irregularstuff5290]

In case of generated images (it's not AI, speaking of wrong words) there are a lot of details, but they don't make sense from human perspective. Because machine doesn't know what world looks like and just figures "in a lot of art people do that and so it must be correct", which leads to stuff like several light sources where there logicaly should be one, extra fingers and teeth, disappearing and appearing out of nowhere limbs and stuff like that, depending on concrete picture. A lot of details in a drawing or painting is actually cool and doing them with purpose and achieving specific effect (where most artists would prefer illusion of details) is a very big fit, shame that current scam fad is trying to take it from people.

[@stickitydoodah]

​@@NoelleTakestheSkywell and if they had really obsessed over tiny details they would have put the images into MS paint and fixed the gross text

[@BryanLu0]

​@@NoelleTakestheSky I think what OP means is that the level of detail is not consistent, which can lead to obvious mistakes in the less detailed areas. Like detail shouldn't come before form

[@RealKarlGreen]

“What is that? It’s the Unknown!”

[@blondshadow9451]

noooo....!

[@ohwelljamie]

Amanda pronouncing Fife (F-eye-f) as FEEF had me cackling

[@wyaakk]

its phonetic how did this happen ahahah

[@notthatcreativewithnames]

If Wikipedia can be trusted, the Scottish Gaelic name of Fife is Fìobha, pronounced somewhat like FEE-va, so Amanda's pronunciation gets pretty close to the Scottish Gaelic name. I don't speak Scottish Gaelic, though.

[@ohwelljamie]

@@notthatcreativewithnames I’m literally scottish but okay

[@lauranbrown555]

⁠​⁠@@notthatcreativewithnames doesn’t really matter or apply in this situation, a very high majority of people in Scotland do not speak Gaelic. Its F-eye-f

[@xscottishsoulx320]

HorrorCon Scotland is employing a couple of the actors for this years events

[@jzmina]

Next episode: Amanda goes to Shen Yu

[@ellenkarlsson9490]

Yes! I get bombarded with Shen Yu ads on a daily basis. Their advertising budget must be huge. I need her to go!

[@222o-u3t]

yes!! neeed someone to check that culty shit out.

[@Boobootheefool]

His apology is obviously AI and very poorly generated 🤣🤣🤣🤣. This is wild!

[@ChatterboxFM]

Every time I see that pic my thought immediately jumps to “Jesus, that poor woman didn’t deserve this..”

[@PhoenixRising1310]

"Come into my dark warehouse children, I don't have any candy"

[@weeklystruggle4205]

AI is cheap. Never trust a company that is promoting their product with AI

[@shelbeemariee]

I assumed the event never intended to be more than it was, and it was a scam from the start.

[@lenapawlek7295]

So glad those angry parents called the police on them - i cant believe they thought they could get away with this scam

[@rhonab6698]

As someone who lives in Glasgow it's still giving me whiplash everytime i see someone i follow making videos about this or posting about it 😂 i can't even be mad at how you pronounced fife because it was too funny

[@bunnykisses]

personal gripe but I hate that Machine Learning is now univerally called AI (Artificial intelligence) when it is not AI.

[@RlyehRamon]

Nah it was nothing to do with licencing, that shit was just a lie. Its the same lie Billy McFarlane used for Fyre fest.

[@ziggystardog]

Sounds like Evermore with fewer steps

[@allimoore4440]

This comment has me cackling 😂😂😂😂

[@FTZPLTC]

Glad to hear a measured perspective on the AI art thing. A lot of people talked about the parents who went to this event as if they were stupid, but I think most people recognise that marketing for events isn't always going to be an untouched photo of the event - there's going to be artist's impressions and representational images. So I think people probably assumed that's what these images were. What I think *should* ring alarm bells is the nonsensical text, because that is so fixable and really points to a lack of care rather than just a lack of budget.

[@Megarover]

Its insane how this situation resulted in a movie about The Unknown getting announced almost immediately.

[@unicornpisssss]

there was a drag show where someone did a _the unknown_ costume on stage like TWO DAYS after the event, people are so creative and SO fast 😭

[@Bjorksbackyard]

Ngl the concept of the Unknown is pretty scary. Why is he in the walls, let alone making chocolate in the walls. Why is he evil? Is the chocolate evil? I have so many questions

[@brookesargent8249]

Damn, I feel bad for everyone who was bamboozled, but this is actually very funny Also, the "Wonka" actor's costume is fully from Amazon, I wore the exact same one for Halloween last year

[@Highice007]

Now you can be a wonkadoodle this year eh?

[@cardamooon]

catgacating is my new favourite word

[@DrawciaGleam02]

Love seeing people read that word!

[@jvgreendarmok]

gaslight catfish catgacate

[@beanmaru]

I had tickets for a Pokemon pop up restaurant, and the morning of my reservation it was canceled. My bf at the time theorized that it was due to a cease and desist order from Nintendo.

[@Redsonja77]

Since they're scammers, I do not think they did their due diligence to buy a license from the Willy Wonka franchise. I do not think they had paid for the "projectors" or what's needed to make the experience "immersive". I think they really wanted to scam everyone. As AI bros, they think everything can be done "just because" and they don't have to pay for it. Others will do it. Others will pay. Others will create it, but THEY themselves will be the only ones to get the profits. I'm so, so happy it fired back. And I do believe they deserve jail time. Otherwise, they're going to rebrand and do it again! EDIT: I wrote this while pausing at 19:10 , then at 19:20 you said "Yeah, I take that back", lol, so my comment is now redundant, but yeah! They were plain scammers.

[@rainbowphoenix1363]

I think this whole thing sounded insane, but when the unknown was revealed, it went full it's always sunny

[@liz6367]

I'd love an episode based on this

[@vaiyt]

"House of Illuminati" is definitely the worse party here. A "company" selling marketing based entirely on cheap AI generated images, helmed by a guy whose "claim to fame" is vomiting AI made knockoff "books" online. We thought AI would empower insufferable Idea Guys into believing themselves artists, but that was the optimistic prospect. These people have no ideas of their own.

[@Checkman282]

That poor lady got tricked into a Breaking Bad moment from Wish.

[@Highice007]

Gold! comedy gold!

[@LunaWitcherArt]

Project management should be a high school topic specifically because of how many people don't understand how to make group projects work

[@goteamgaz]

I’m from Glasgow, it’s been so wild watching this go from a funny local story to global meme in the last two weeks.

[@srtatropicalia]

Amanda was giving them so much grace at the beginning I'm crying 😭 no girl, there was no licensing problem that made everything fall through... they were just scammers

[@zaknotkyle]

Glasgow is now known for two things: Heidi N Closet shitting in a parking lot in the city, and whatever this entire event was.

[@lifeoffire9248]

This feels like what would happen if you made the Dashcon Ballpit an entire event

[@bug7331]

IM CRYING OVER YOUR PRONUNCIATION OF FIFE!!!! its not feef its f-eye-f 😭

[@sarnea5331]

was coming here to write this😂

[@begoodvgoode]

howling over the pronunciation

[@b.r.5146]

ok but if you read the CC on the home video section near the end, a good portion is captioned to "indistinct" 😂

[@lisahoshowsky4251]

I truly don’t believe this was an event that just wasn’t fully realized, or thwarted by a cease and desist, this was an event that was conceptualized as a scam from the get go and they just didn’t do quite enough this time to stem off the complaints. I’ve seen so many comments were apparently events like this are common in the UK around the holidays so it seems like there’s a “culture” of events like this existing and people making off with some money before too many people complain too loudly. This one just sucked so bad that it hit the media before they got a chance to disappear in the unknown….😂😂 sorry, I’ll see myself out.

[@Sleipnirseight]

I went to the Van Gogh experience in DC last year and the exhibit and immersive painting scenes leading up to the massive projection room were sweet. They did a really thorough job giving TONS of information about his life, and the exhibit followed the timeline on his life and work. It was like an actual museum exhibit, but with a bunch of creative, immersive components

[@micro-babe]

Yeah I went to that a while back and I actually really enjoyed it.

[@cannedsaladsoup430]

i work in marketing as a designer so i'll throw my two cents in: ai art can be good for finding inspiration. that's it. the only ai i can accept in my field is for photo editing such as removing objects or noise.

[@Kokolowolf]

That opening statement my god. I would give anything to have seen Swell at Dashcon / her wrapup after.

[@TheGreatChrisB]

A guy who named his company House of illuminati who then lets AI write books he sells on Amazon and let AI put an event together, is the new scam. Forget Crypto and NFT's, they've moved on to AI.

[@juju_]

I'm so happy you made this video, my friends and I have been OBSESSED with this event in the past few days, we keep quoting "what is that?....it's THE UNKNOWN!" when we see each other. This is the funniest thing I've seen this year and I'm dying with all the fanart that people are doing

[@muggsyaxton8085]

Sad Oompa Loompa and the Unknown will hopefully be remembered in 9 months when Halloween rolls around

[@getbogged]

I used to work for one of those van gogh shows (there was two competing ones; I worked for the lighthouse immersive one). I was thinking about it during this whole wonka experience thing. The van gogh show was such a scam. It was cool when we had become a real art gallery with real Banksy work, but that didn’t last long. Lighthouse immersive has filed for bankruptcy which is good because they were shitty to employees and made us constantly worried about our employment status.

[@blahblahblahEMILY]

i've be laughing at "a pasadise of sweet teats" for days now

[@Aldrastar]

ill take a pasadise of sweet teats please

[@jvgreendarmok]

Go to hormy jaii.

[@Evolution_Kills]

It's precious that she's taking this event more seriously in her critique, than the event organizer did in planning it. It was a scam. If they had a drop of genuine creativity or care for the event, they wouldn't shove all the creative work off onto AI and gig-economy workers.

[@lendseyKnows]

We are truly living in a dystopia. Rationing jellybeans!?

[@antant6217]

I was super depressed the day this event took place. After seeing some of the pics, I started laughing for a solid 10 minutes. They might have disappointed a bunch of kids but they brought joy to a 29-year-old man that really needed a laugh. So uh, good job I guess.

[@222o-u3t]

i'm sorry to hear it ❤the sheer laziness of this whole AI grift has at least made many people howl with laughter, thank god

[@kaitlyn9138]

This whole situation is crazy to me. Where I’m from we have a safe grad (a fun thing to do after prom so that people aren’t out drinking all night) and it was run by the parents and looked 100 times better than this event😭😭😭 how did they think this was okay to do

[@briarrose8154]

As soon as that story broke & I saw the pictures I’ve been waiting for your video 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@Benjamin-ku2ks]

Looking at the website of house of illuminati i think the html css (website code) might have been ai generated too. No way any online web builder allows such a shit web design

[@NEILAMALONE]

As a Dundonian, (Dundee) I can't imagine being at all happy to travel for 2-3 hours, more if coming from Aberdeen to be met with this! Having seen many reports, I don't believe licensing comes into it at all, I think the organiser was trying to play off the Willy Wonka character/world for an unlicensed event, it also looks like the website may be down now.

[@person-iw8qj]

the outro getting mumblier over time. i’m here for that

[@buffyVampslyr364]

I've been waiting for your thoughts on this! It's such a perfect mess of an event for you to cover. 😂😅

[@The07031996]

I know right! As soon as the news broke, my 1st thought was Swell.

[@Oonagh72]

Memphis, years ago had a Dino exhibit at the zoo (I think it was Memphis) anyhoo it was awesome. The dinos 🦕 🦖 were life size and some of them moved and it was in a habitat. I loved every minute of it. It felt actually “immersive”. I think my awe was the artistry and attention to detail. All the people involved in that should have been very proud.

[@khaleesiknope]

The Phoenix zoo had the same kind of exhibit last year! My bf and I went, it was so cool!

[@dancecommandr]

AI art is the new Clipart

[@stytler06]

Feef absolutely killed me, thank you

[@nejdalej]

One great thing about this event is that more people know how to pronounce Glasgow now 😂 Btw Fife is pronounced 'fy-ff'. Like five but with an ff sound instead of a v. It's totally understandable for a foreigner to make this mistake, we've got a lot of places names that are easy to trip up on. Great video! X

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

At least it wasn't in Milngavie. Or Finzean.

[@weeeez]

This happened literally 5 minutes down the road from me and I never ever thought I'd hear u bring up Whiteinch hahahahahahaha ily

[@hideflen]

The “ ™”s on the website are absolutely sending me 😂

[@stickitydoodah]

Reading the ai image text has me experiencing new types of emotions.

[@manic_girl]

“sweet teats” had me HOWLING

[@stickitydoodah]

​@@manic_girlCARTCHY TUNS

[@bec7080]

OMG, I agree with the "if I could have only been there" for this. The actors are getting a lot of attention for it, but in a good way because they tried really hard (I mean yeah there was the meth oompa loompa meme but she got BIG magazine interviews). If people really got their money back like they said they were going to and if these interviews made up for the money the actors missed then it is ok all around. This has brought me happiness for DAYYYYYSSSSS

[@sarahelisabeth2578]

What gets me is all the people who bought tickets didn’t read anything long enough to realize it was a scam? I mean, really- are people reading that little before buying tickets to things? And the answer is yes (I work at a ticketed venue) but this just feels ridiculous 💀

[@thejokersmistress15]

Events can fall apart for a multitude of reasons. I co-own an event company and have some experience. This particular event feels like it wasn’t fleshed out in the least. It was a lofty idea with big-mouthed advertising and little to no follow-through. The decor itself seemed like an after-thought and like it was hurriedly ordered two weeks before. Venue decor is worked on for months beforehand. Actors have to be vetted and trained. This feels like either a completely inexperienced event planner who was way over their head or a true money-grab.

[@aeddiefarmer]

So glad you're covering this because as my bf and I were following the updates I kept saying 'this is just the kind of event this great youtuber I watched named Swell Entertainment covers!' I really wish it could have been closer to you, I know you would have been there like a shot and we all would have loved it.

[@Sleipnirseight]

The whole "AI art makes marketing more accessible" is such a BS cop-out when there are apps like Canva. Literally anyone can make a flier/ad that looks nice and it doesn't require undermining other artists and humanity. Edit: typo

[@BubblegumLightsaber]

This is my new favorite event disaster drama since Dashcon 2014

[@PenguinDust1969]

There was a movie starring Jeff Daniels called Timescape (1992 film) that was about people going back in time to watch disasters as they happened. This event, the Fyre Festival and Woodstock '99 should be in the sequel.

[@snestah]

Oh, I loved that movie growing up!! I think it was called Disaster in Time when it first came out. And, this catastrophe should definitely be in a sequel of failed festivals. It would be like time travel for Spring Breakers.

[@cookingwithsilence]

This really is one of those events that a specific type of person would have loved because of how bad it is, but you don't plan on witnessing this type of thing, it either happens to you or you're left to envy whoever went there even though they most likely hated it.

[@Tizzandor]

there has been a good video by slopes game room. they were not only not licensed, but they used a lot of cheats to get around copyrights the whole script was AI generated. the actors were genuinely nice in the video and they were so devestated by the whole event

[@ILaffi]

I mean … I’m sorry to everyone who wasted their time going there but thank god for this event because it gifted us the best picture ever taken ❤ 16:05

[@Malignantt1]

I love that every time ai art is used in marketing, its like a curse and basically turns the event into a disaster

[@MaddieFLevine]

Love getting a video from you and Wait in the Wings on the same day on the same topic... even with the same sponsor! (and this is not sarcasm)

[@rcvkstar]

Willy Wonka the Experience, The 97 year old diner that makes coke the good old fashioned way, Julie Ragbeer, and Taylor Swift 'Exile' will go down in history as a historical event.

[@palomabennettwordpressblog7490]

Roald Dahl's estate (Netflix) has the rights to the name Willy Wonka and the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Warner Bros just licensed the character. They don't own anything outside of the Wonka movie.

[@Jiddy12345]

Jurassic Quest is really cool. They come to my hometown quite often and never once make it seem like it's Jurassic Park.

[@Dustylittlestudio]

I live in Glasgow where this all happened and make non AI art shorts if anyone wants to see any of that (I had to, I'm sorry, I'm never usually relevant)